Skokie Independent Landlord Association (SILA)

Serving Skokie rental property owners, renters and homeowners

Landlords, please check back regularly to these pages. SILA will be updating them with free, useful educational information, standardized forms and other resources to help you become a better landlord.

The Members Only pages will be used for sharing proprietary educational information, specialized property management forms, conections to important building services and discount offers for SILA members.

As you read the material contained here, please note the sources of the information, visit their web sites for more details and consider patronizing their businesses. Note however, that SILA has no relationship with these authors and takes no responsibility for information or services provided outside of the SILA web site. If you would like to contribute content on the SILA site, or have landlord questions you would like answered here, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you.

Some Ideas About Storing (or not storing) Your Landlord Junk- Be sure to read the comments section. It includes the following story... "When I was in college I stayed in a house that was divided into 4 apartments. You had to supply your own window air conditioner. My neighbor didn’t have one, but when we looked in the detached garage – filled to the brim with all sorts of “junk” - we found one sitting there. We asked the handyman and he said it’s been there forever and even installed it for her. When it was time to move out, the landlord remarked that it was a nice a/c unit and could he buy it from her. My neighbor said, “Sure,” and so the owner, not knowing what stuff he had in his own garage, bought his own air conditioner back from her. We later saw him… put it in the garage."

New Requirements for Criminal Reports

If you use criminal background reports as part of your tenant screening process, you should be aware that recent rulings now require that you treat these reports very much like you handle credit reports. Criminal searches fall under the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What does this mean to landlords? First, make sure you have a signed authorization before ordering any reports on your applicant. A signature on the application is required.

If you deny an applicant based on the results of the report, you need to do three things:

Provide the applicant with a copy of their report

Provide the applicant with a copy of the publication describing their consumer rights.